Government Finance Profession

Career Management

The term ‘career’ encompasses a wide range of occupational experiences, not just conventional ones. Careers don't necessarily involve promotion or progression, and they frequently cross occupational and organisational boundaries. ‘Career’ can be defined as the sequence of jobs that a person has during his or her working life.

Few careers adhere closely to the idea of upward progression through a hierarchical sequence of roles. Some involve sideways moves within an organisation, frequent moves in or out of employment in a number of different companies, phases of self-employment, or temporary work and permanent employment. People also develop their careers by accumulating and transferring job skills from one context to another, by broadening the range of expertise they apply in each successive job, or by constantly seeking out novel and challenging situations.

Career management is primarily focused on an individuals career and how it will develop in the future, be it in a single organisation or across a number of organisations. However, organisations can take an active role in the career management of their employees. Employees can be made aware of opportunities within the organisation and management can take an active interest in employees career management. Organisations will be rewarded with a dynamic workforce that will add to the talent and succession pools at the higher levels of the organisation. As well as reducing the cost of recruiting into a porous workforce.

By taking an active role in employee’s career management an organisation can align over-reaching business requirements with the career aspirations of individuals.

Recommended Process

Click on the text below to view useful tools & guidance for each stage of the process.

• Career planning and support activities
• Career information and advice
• Developmental Assignments
• Internal job markets and job posting systems